DESCRIPTION

The purpose of this program is to provide a daemonized version of the
spamassassin executable. The goal is improving throughput performance
for automated mail checking.
This is intended to be used alongside "spamc", a fast, low-overhead C
client program.
See the README file in the "spamd" directory of the SpamAssassin dis-
tribution for more details.
Note: Although "spamd" will check per-user config files for every mes-
sage, any changes to the system-wide config files will require either
restarting spamd or forcing it to reload itself via SIGHUP for the
changes to take effect.
Note: If "spamd" receives a SIGHUP, it internally reloads itself, which
means that it will change its pid and might not restart at all if its
environment changed (ie. if it can’t change back into its own direc-
tory). If you plan to use SIGHUP, you should always start "spamd" with
the -r switch to know its current pid.

OPTIONS

Options of the long form can be shortened as long as they remain unam-
biguous. (i.e. --dae can be used instead of --daemonize) Also, boolean
options (like --user-config) can be negated by adding no (--nouser-con-fig), however, this is usually unnecessary.
-c, --create-prefs
Create user preferences files if they don’t exist (default: don’t).
-Cpath, --configpath=path
Use the specified path for locating the distributed configuration
files. Ignore the default directories (usually "/usr/share/spamas-
sassin" or similar).
--siteconfigpath=path
Use the specified path for locating site-specific configuration
files. Ignore the default directories (usually "/etc/mail/spamas-
sassin" or similar).
-d, --daemonize
Detach from starting process and run in background (daemonize).
-h, --help
Print a brief help message, then exit without further action.
-i [ipaddress], --listen-ip[=ipaddress], --ip-address[=ipaddress]
Tells spamd to listen on the specified IP address (defaults to
127.0.0.1). If you specify no IP address after the switch, spamd
will listen on all interfaces. (This is equal to the address
0.0.0.0). You can also use a valid hostname which will make spamd
listen on the first address that name resolves to.
-pport, --port=port
Optionally specifies the port number for the server to listen on
(default: 783).
Note: If spamd is set to run as a non-root user (-u), and is to run
on a privileged port (any < 1024), the parent will not be able to
be sent a SIGHUP to reload the configuration.
-q, --sql-config
Turn on SQL lookups even when per-user config files have been dis-
abled with -x. this is useful for spamd hosts which don’t have
user’s home directories but do want to load user preferences from
an SQL database.
If your spamc client does not support sending the "User:" header,
like "exiscan", then the SQL username used will always be nobody.
--ldap-config
Turn on LDAP lookups. This is completely analog to "--sql-config",
only it is using an LDAP server.
-Q, --setuid-with-sql
Turn on SQL lookups even when per-user config files have been dis-
abled with -x and also setuid to the user. This is useful for
spamd hosts which want to load user preferences from an SQL
database but also wish to support the use of the auto-whitelist and
-H (Helper home directories.)
--setuid-with-ldap
Turn on LDAP lookups even when per-user config files have been dis-
abled with -x and also setuid to the user. This is again com-
pletely analog to "--setuid-with-sql", only it is using an LDAP
server.
--virtual-config-dir=pattern
This option specifies where per-user preferences can be found for
virtual users, for the -x switch. The pattern is used as a base
pattern for the directory name. Any of the following escapes can
be used:
%u -- replaced with the full name of the current user, as sent by
spamc.
%l -- replaced with the ’local part’ of the current username. In
other words, if the username is an email address, this is the part
before the "@" sign.
%d -- replaced with the ’domain’ of the current username. In other
words, if the username is an email address, this is the part after
the "@" sign.
%% -- replaced with a single percent sign (%).
So for example, if "/vhome/users/%u/spamassassin" is specified, and
spamc sends a virtual username of "jm@example.com", the directory
"/vhome/users/jm@example.com/spamassassin" will be used.
The set of characters allowed in the virtual username for this path
are restricted to:
A-Z a-z 0-9 - + _ . , @ =
All others will be replaced by underscores ("_").
This path must be a writable directory. It will be created if it
does not already exist. If a file called user_prefs exists in this
directory (note: not in a ".spamassassin" subdirectory!), it will
be loaded as the user’s preferences. The auto-whitelist and/or
Bayes databases for that user will be stored in this directory.
Note that this requires that -x is used, and cannot be combined
with SQL- or LDAP-based configuration.
The pattern must expand to an absolute directory when spamd is run-
ning daemonized (-d).
-rpidfile, --pidfile=pidfile
Write the process ID of the spamd parent to the file specified by
pidfile. The file will be unlinked when the parent exits. Note
that when running with the -u option, the file must be writable by
that user.
-v, --vpopmail
Enable vpopmail config. If specified with with -u set to the vpop-
mail user, this allows spamd to lookup/create user_prefs in the
vpopmail user’s own maildir. This option is useful for vpopmail
virtual users who do not have an entry in the system /etc/passwd
file.
Currently, use of this without -u is not supported.
-sfacility, --syslog=facility
Specify the syslog facility to use (default: mail). If "stderr" is
specified, output will be written to stderr. (This is useful if
you’re running "spamd" under the "daemontools" package.) With a
facility of "file", all output goes to spamd.log. facility is
interpreted as a file name to log to if it contains any characters
except a-z and 0-9. "null" disables logging completely (used inter-
nally).
Examples: spamd -s mail # use syslog, facility
mail (default) spamd -s ./mail # log to file
./mail spamd -s stderr 2>/dev/null # log to stderr, throw
messages away spamd -s null # the same as
above spamd -s file # log to file ./spamd.log
spamd -s /var/log/spamd.log # log to file /var/log/spamd.log
If logging to a file is enabled and that log file is rotated, the
spamd server must be restarted with a SIGHUP. (If the log file is
just truncated, this is not needed but still recommended.)
--syslog-socket=type
Specify how spamd should send messages to syslogd. The options are
"unix", "inet" or "none". The default is to try "unix" first,
falling back to "inet" if perl detects errors in its "unix" sup-
port.
Some platforms, or versions of perl, are shipped with dysfunctional
versions of the Sys::Syslog package which do not support some
socket types, so you may need to set this. If you get error mes-
sages regarding __PATH_LOG or similar from spamd, try changing this
setting.
The socket type "file" is used internally and should not be speci-
fied.
-uusername, --username=username
Run as the named user. If this option is not set, the default
behaviour is to setuid() to the user running "spamc", if "spamd" is
running as root.
Note: "--username=root" is not a valid option. If specified,
"spamd" will exit with a fatal error on startup.
Note: If this option is set to a non-root user, and spamd is to run
on a privileged port (any < 1024, default 783 or via -p), the par-
ent will not be able to be sent a SIGHUP to reload the configura-
tion.
-x, --nouser-config, --user-config
Turn off(on) reading of per-user configuration files (user_prefs)
from the user’s home directory. The default behaviour is to read
per-user configuration from the user’s home directory.
This option does not disable or otherwise influence the SQL, LDAP
or Virtual Config Dir settings.
--auth-ident
Verify the username provided by spamc using ident. This is only
useful if connections are only allowed from trusted hosts (because
an identd that lies is trivial to create) and if spamc REALLY
SHOULD be running as the user it represents. Connections are ter-
minated immediately if authentication fails. In this case, spamc
will pass the mail through unchecked. Failure to connect to an
ident server, and response timeouts are considered authentication
failures. This requires that Net::Ident be installed.
--ident-timeout=timeout
Wait at most timeout seconds for a response to ident queries.
Authentication that takes long that timeout seconds will fail, and
mail will not be processed. Setting this to 0.0 or less results in
no timeout, which is STRONGLY discouraged. The default is 5
seconds.
-Ahost,..., --allowed-ips=host,...
Specify a list of authorized hosts or networks which can connect to
this spamd instance. Single IP addresses can be given, ranges of IP
addresses in address/masklength CIDR format, or ranges of IP
addresses by listing 3 or less octets with a trailing dot. Host-
names are not supported, only IP addresses. This option can be
specified multiple times, or can take a list of addresses separated
by commas. Examples:
-A10.11.12.13 -- only allow connections from 10.11.12.13.
-A10.11.12.13,10.11.12.14 -- only allow connections from
10.11.12.13 and 10.11.12.14.
-A10.200.300.0/24 -- allow connections from any machine in the
range "10.200.300.*".
-A10. -- allow connections from any machine in the range
"10.*.*.*".
By default, connections are only accepted from localhost
[127.0.0.1].
-D, --debug
Print debugging messages
-L, --local
Perform only local tests on all mail. In other words, skip DNS and
other network tests. Works the same as the "-L" flag to spamassas-
sin(1).
-P, --paranoid
Die on user errors (for the user passed from spamc) instead of
falling back to user nobody and using the default configuration.
-mnumber , --max-children=number
This option specifies the maximum number of children to spawn.
Spamd will spawn that number of children, then sleep in the back-
ground until a child dies, wherein it will go and spawn a new
child.
Incoming connections can still occur if all of the children are
busy, however those connections will be queued waiting for a free
child. The minimum value is 1, the default value is 5.
Please note that there is a OS specific maximum of connections that
can be queued (Try "perl -MSocket -e’print SOMAXCONN’" to find this
maximum).
--max-conn-per-child=number
This option specifies the maximum number of connections each child
should process before dying and letting the master spamd process
spawn a new child. The minimum value is 1, the default value is
200.
-Hdirectory, --helper-home-dir=directory
Specify that external programs such as Razor, DCC, and Pyzor should
have a HOME environment variable set to a specific directory. The
default is to use the HOME environment variable setting from the
shell running spamd. By specifying no argument, spamd will use the
spamc caller’s home directory instead.
--ssl
Accept only SSL connections. The IO::Socket::SSL perl module must
be installed.
--server-keykeyfile
Specify the SSL key file to use for SSL connections.
--server-certcertfile
Specify the SSL certificate file to use for SSL connections.
--socketpathpathname
Listen on UNIX domain path pathname instead of a TCP socket.
--socketownername
Set UNIX domain socket to be owned by the user named name. Note
that this requires that spamd be started as "root", and if "-u" is
used, that user should have write permissions to unlink the file
later, for when the "spamd" server is killed.
--socketgroupname
Set UNIX domain socket to be owned by the group named name. See
"--socketowner" for notes on ownership and permissions.
--socketmodemode
Set UNIX domain socket to use the octal mode mode. Note that if
"-u" is used, that user should have write permissions to unlink the
file later, for when the "spamd" server is killed.